2002 Suzuki VL800 Intruder Volusia – aka C50

Category Archives: Bike Project

I bought a license plate bracket from Simspeed, and to mount it to my bike I had to create a custom brace for it. I think it turned out well.

All I did was bent a piece of metal into an S shape, drill a few holes and it was done. I just have to paint it next.

The white ties will be coming off, and replaced with something else. I just put them on to hold the light cable so I could take the bike out for a joy ride. The temperature got up to about 55 degrees yesterday.

The Simspeed bracket came with the brake light that also has a clear section to let light shine on the plate.

My local bike shop, Open Road Biker Gear, had a set of Hard Krome Drag Star Staggered Duals in stock. I’ve seen some forums and posts about issues with Hard Krome pipes cracking. I’m hoping that won’t be the case with these. I guess we’ll see. I’ve also seen many forums and posts about how nice their pipes are.

I had to make a phone call to Hard Krome in California to figure out how to get the mount bracket on. There were two different sets of instructions and one part of it was a bit confusing.

Essentially, you have to remove the three bolts that hold on the triangle shaped brace that the stock pipes are attached to. You reuse those three bolts with the supplied nuts to attach the bracket that Hard Krome included in the supplies. Also, I had to remove the black vertical side cover before removing the OEM brace. HK provides a bolt, washer and nut that you use when replacing the cover, since the OEM bolt attached to the OEM brace that was removed.

With that, the bike has lost a little more weight. Awesome!

The pipes went on very easily, and I love the way they look. After wiping away all signs of fingerprints (because if you don’t before you heat up the chrome, your fingerprints will be there forever) I fired up the engine and holy smoke, these babies sound incredible – not to mention loud.

They are loud enough for me right now, so I have no intentions of removing the baffles. I can’t imagine how loud my bike would be if I did.

FOOT PEGS
I wanted to replace the wing shaped front foot pegs that came with my bobber project bike. I was wanting something a little closer to stock looking.

I found out the pegs that were on my bike were Kuryakyn brand foot pegs. My local bike supply shop, Open Road Biker Shop in Goldsboro, NC, carries Kuryakyn brand pegs. The ones I wanted came with male mount adapters, but I was able to remove the ones on my wing shaped pegs and use them. In a matter of a few minutes, I was good to go.

SEAT BRACKET
There is a small metal bracket on the back, underside of the Suzuki VL800 seat that connects to the rear fender. Well since I removed the fenders, I lost that connection. For a temporary fix (until I get my bobber spring seat) I mounted a 1″x1/4″x11″ bar across two mount spots made vacant with the removal of the rear fender. I then made a T out of that bar with a 2″x3/16″x5″ bar of metal that now mounts to the seat bracket. I turned the seat bracket around so that it was hidden under the seat.

It’s not pretty under there, but at least it is functional. If I leave it like this for long, I’ll have to put a coat of black paint on those pieces of metal.

I also found out that the OEM brake pedal had only had a slip on chrome piece put on it. I removed it to give the bike a little more original, classic look. I’m now looking for a toe only shifter pedal to replace the toe and heel shifter pedal that came on the bike.

Last thing I decided to do today was remove the front fender. She really looks like a completely different bike now. I’m going to fashion me a T bar made of two pieces of metal welded together to hold the factory seat in place in the bike’s current state of being. This will do until I add the smaller, spring seat. I removed the tank emblem today too.

My Honda Shadow Owner Facebook page bud, Ole Søren Sørensen, of Oslo, Norway, suggested I try S100 to clean my bike. I gotta buy him a beer. That stuff is awesome. I found it at Shelton’s Harley Davidson in Goldsboro.

All I did was spray it on, wait a couple minutes, and spray it off with my regular water hose and nozzle. No rubbing. No scrubbing. No nothing else.